The Fae Book 3: Butcher and Raine

Chapter 11 (Butcher): For The First Time

***TW for acts of violence***

I watched Raine walk back up the stairs to her apartment without having taken a shot at Steve.

She just walked away without taking revenge.

When I'd told her I didn't understand her, that'd been nothing less than the truth. When the opportunity for vengeance was right in front of you, you took advantage of it. No question, no hesitation. Maybe she hadn't because she was pregnant, but that shouldn't have stopped her. A few kicks to Steve's balls or stomach wouldn't have hurt her or the baby. 

Reaching out with one hand, I grabbed Steve's neck and lifted him to his feet, enjoying his fear that would soon be sliding straight into terror. The little coward who tormented Raine because she couldn't retaliate with the threat of arrest hanging over her head would find out how it felt to have someone bigger and stronger than he was torment him.  

With the door of the van open, I threw Steve inside and then drove him back to the guest room. Shadow and Prick met me there, and when we pulled Steve out of the van in the garage, he'd gone straight past terror right into hysteria. He was thrashing around like a fish on shore, screaming behind his gag, tears streaming down his face.

"Hook or chair?" Shadow asked.

"Hook to start," I said, and they took him away between the two of them.

Normally when we had a guest, I knew exactly why and what crime he or she had committed against the Mayhem. Maybe someone was messing with the MC's businesses, maybe someone had hit out at one of the brothers...but this was the first time since my step-father that it was personal. Steve hadn't done anything to the MC so he normally would never have been on my radar. 

But he'd done something to Raine.

When Specter had reported back to me about the Steve incident, Mother had all the details in front of me less than ten minutes later.  He'd sent me an email with all the particulars, starting it with He's a little shithead.

The fucker had had Raine arrested after she'd kicked him in the balls in a bar, then he dropped the charges because Liam Hughes had given him money. Not satisfied with just a financial settlement, Steve also had made it a condition of the deal that Raine could never go after him again without being arrested, giving the little bitch free rein to taunt her. Probably hoping she'd snap and he could have her put in jail.

Now, Steve was going to pay for the taunts over the last couple of years, but most especially for shoulder checking Raine today.

My mood was never sunny to begin with, but the fact that Steve was in our guest quarters and hadn't done anything to the MC made my mood worse. The rage I'd felt when Specter had reported in had surprised me, and I hated surprises.

My life was based on a barter system. You do something for me, and I'll owe you one. I do something for you, and you'll owe me. Simply business. Basic. Transactional. I also made sure more people were in debt to me than I owed a favor to, and if I owed anyone, I paid them back almost immediately.

Yet here Steve was. Not as a favor to another MC. Not because he'd tried to come at the Mayhem. Not because he'd done anything wrong in the MC sphere.

But because he'd been bothering Raine.

My thoughts flashed to the asshole in her yoga class who'd touched her stomach. I don't even know why I ended up there that day, other than some little voice in my head had been urging me to go to Raine's studio. Eventually, I'd given in to the urging and gone.

That little voice was new. Ever since I could remember, I hadn't heard voices, but I'd felt urges. From somewhere deep inside of me, there was something dark, something that was satisfied only when I ended the life of an enemy.